GameEx 3.47 Available

[Tom Speirs]

GameEx 3.47

- Ignore the premium settings there not available yet.

- Ability to enable/disable sound effects in GameEx and not have GameEx initialise DirectSound.

- Should fix bug where favorites list overwrites other lists.

- When ALT-Tabbing or pressing windows key when GameEx is fullscreen - the desktop and taskbar will now be displayed (No more black screen).

- New setting - to always include (do not filter) specific roms when updating the list.

- Window Control button (Top Right) is now shown correctly when a jukebox track is not playing.

- New command line option '-listupdate' which will update the MAME list then exit.

IMPORTANT: For the short term ALL mame pictures/images, must be as files. ZIPS are no longer supported at the moment, until I get a chance to make the zip handling faster. Your'll thank me for it, if your using all the MAME extras

Download is here (Main web site wont be updated for about 9 days):

http://tomspeirs.com/gameex/download/gameexsetup347.exe

[David R Hilgendorf]

Well I use zipped images and I have no speed problems. Hate to see it go Guess I'll stick to the older version for now.

[Tom Speirs]

Hi David,

Perhaps I got this wrong.

Are you using all image packs, SNAP, Cab, Flyer, Marquee and panels?

Are they for all/most games?

And you say your experiencing no slow down on the 800MHZ, even when selecting a MAME game (displaying Game Info)?

If the answer to all 3 is yes, I trust you as a senior GameEx user and will put the feature back straight away

Let me know.

Tom

[David R Hilgendorf]

Are you using all image packs, SNAP, Cab, Flyer, Marquee and panels?

Are they for all/most games?

And you say your experiencing no slow down on the 800MHZ, even when selecting a MAME game (displaying Game Info)?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I wanted to do some troubleshooting on this for you when I realized that while I have zipped Cabinets, Flyers, Marquees, and Panels for all games and I have GameEx config set up to use the correct directories, I don't actually see any place in the frontend that displays these images.

As for SNAP I also realized that I never actually got zipped snaps to display in GameEx so I unzipped them all a while ago. I tried zipping up a dozen or so and they still will not load up at all. Any ideas why I can't use zipped snaps at all?

I have snaps for virtually every game, and I also use the 389 avi files I got from your bittorrent which are unzipped. So I guess This is a feature I want, and thought I was using, but actually never had working in the first place.

Guess I need to try 3.47 now huh?

[Tom Speirs]

I wanted to do some troubleshooting on this for you when I realized that while I have zipped Cabinets, Flyers, Marquees, and Panels for all games and I have GameEx config set up to use the correct directories, I don't actually see any place in the frontend that displays these images.

As for SNAP I also realized that I never actually got zipped snaps to display in GameEx so I unzipped them all a while ago.  I tried zipping up a dozen or so and they still will not load up at all.  Any ideas why I can't use zipped snaps at all?

I have snaps for virtually every game, and I also use the 389 avi files I got from your bittorrent which are unzipped.  So I guess This is a feature I want, and thought I was using, but actually never had working in the first place.

Guess I need to try 3.47 now huh?

Hi Dave, it sounds like your missing out some good gameex action, and have 'Show Game Info' turned off. Its under MAME update settings. Although find that a little hard to believe

When selecting a game, GameEx then displays an additional page, where you add to favorites, selecte recommended games etc, and this is where the marquee etc are displayed.

[David R Hilgendorf]

Yes, I disabled this "feature" a while ago. I enable it to add games to the favorites (I am up to G). I looked and looked yesterday and did not see anywhere in this feature that display marquees, or anything other than SNAP for that matter. Maybe that has something to do with the BlueEX custom theme I am using? I guess I can go try the default theme and see if marquees, etc. show up...

Would custom themes be a reason this doesn't work? I turn this feature off to get the instant gratification of starting a game when I select it. I'd rather see the marquee on the main page when I am scrolling through the list of games. I think it might fit very well across the top of the Main page. Maybe I will photshop a picture of what I envision my fontend looking like and you can get some ideas.

[Tom Speirs]

Yes, I disabled this "feature" a while ago.  I enable it to add games to the favorites (I am up to G).  I looked and looked yesterday and did not see anywhere in this feature that display marquees, or anything other than SNAP for that matter.  Maybe that has something to do with the BlueEX custom theme I am using? I guess I can go try the default theme and see if marquees, etc. show up...

Would custom themes be a reason this doesn't work?  I turn this feature off to get the instant gratification of starting a game when I select it.  I'd rather see the marquee on the main page when I am scrolling through the list of games.  I think it might fit very well across the top of the Main page.  Maybe I will photshop a picture of what I envision my fontend looking like and you can get some ideas.

I cant think of any reason why a custom theme would affect it. If your image directories are correctly recognised (will tell you in the log), and you have the image in the dir for the rom, it should display cabinet, marquee, flyer, panel on the lines below 'Play This Game'. Ive never seen a report or had a verified report of the feature not working until now?

[David R Hilgendorf]

My guess is it's because I can't get GameEx to read zip files at all. I suspect if I unzip them it will work. I will try this and let you know. Right now those options DO NOT show up on that page and all my images are in large single zips (except snaps).

UPDATE: I figured out why GameEx wouldn't read the image zips at all on my system. I only pointed to the directory, not the actual zip file. Regardless with 3.47 I can't use them anyway. I am only using the snap files right now anyway because I don't use the game info screen. I'll just run the snaps and avi files unzipped for now. Hopefully you can get zip working again in the near future.

[Ruby-Rube]

My whole 'artwork' direcoty is .zip files. Oh well, I'm not sure where I'll miss it anyway.

Reuben

[RSAntilles]

All my art is in files anyway so thats cool.

But will I be ok just upgrading to 3.47 or will I have to go through the whole setup process again with all my settings.

[Tom Speirs]

All my art is in files anyway so thats cool.

But will I be ok just upgrading to 3.47 or will I have to go through the whole setup process again with all my settings.

Hi, no it does the upgrade for you, its very simple. Just run the setup.exe its as simple as that.

[RSAntilles]

Awesome thanks Tom, Ill check it out. Im lovin it btw!

[mrplant]

Thaught I'd add that on my Sempron 2400+, 512MB Ram, XP- there is no slowdown on 3.45

All my resources are zipped and I am a bit reluctant to unzip them..

My vote is to keep the handling as it was in 3.45!

Steve McD.

[Tom Speirs]

Thaught I'd add that on my Sempron 2400+, 512MB Ram, XP- there is no slowdown on 3.45

All my resources are zipped and I am a bit reluctant to unzip them..

My vote is to keep the handling as it was in 3.45!

Steve McD.

Hi All. Three things.

1. I really dont see what the issue is with unzipping the files, there compressed anyway, and it take seconds. If your worried about hard disk performance in explorer, just split up your top level mame folders. Even if there is a slow down, it will only be when you try to navigate to the files in explorer or a brwoser dialog.

2. Yourll get much better performance.

3. In addition this feature will be coming back once I optimise it.